


The detective prince and King of delinquency

by RoseTheQueen



Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 23:05:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8263718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseTheQueen/pseuds/RoseTheQueen
Summary: After the events of the good P4 Golden ending the investigation team went their separate ways and while they still kept in regular contact Naoto and Kanji had always had a close friendship which seemed to only grow greater after the investigation ended. A mysterious thief with seemingly no pattern, no cause and no concern for caution now plagues Iniba and when Naoto is drawn in to lead the investigation it goes from bad to worse as the crimes escalate and lead her further into the case. As a detective but more worryingly for her own personal agenda





	

It had barely been a month since Yu had left the small town of Inaba and their yearlong investigation had finally drawn to a close with the arrest of Adachi, something none of them could have predicted from the outset.

After their final goodbye to Yu on the train platform the investigation team had went their own ways somewhat but still keeping in touch on an almost daily basis, one of the few benefits of such a small town is that the team members were a few minutes’ walk away at most. Teddy and Yosuke had gone back to work at Junes, Yukiko had continued to work at the family inn although now she had a new apprentice in the form of Chie much to everyone’s surprise.

Rise on the other hand had headed off to Tokyo barely a week after the investigation had wrapped to begin her big comeback as an idol, the world had missed her and she was finally missing the stardom after the break she had been on, murder investigations make someone appreciate the lifestyle that bit more.

As for Naoto however she and Kanji had grown close during the course of the year and stayed close to each other after the investigation was over without having to really try, the two had a certain chemistry which would have originally been unexpected by everyone but the two complimented each other quite well. The detective prince and the king of delinquency had a certain ring to it after all.

The pair had ended up spending most of their spare time together out of convenience in how close they were physically to one another but also because of how the pair could seemingly turn any boring day of walking around into a never ending wealth of odd conversations and hilarity.

Naoto had spent most of the day at Kanji’s as the weather had turned for the worst and the planned trip to Junes had to be put off. Neither of them could remember the last time it had rained this bad as they watched it bounce of the concrete outside as they waited for their tea to cool down. “It’s odd now that even though the investigation is over the rain still gives me cause for concern” Naoto said seemingly staring into the large puddles forming outside.  
“I mean duh dude of course it is, last time it rained we had to worry about people dying on us if we didn’t get them out of that stupid TV world in time, gonna take a while before that worry goes away” Kanji added before reaching for his tea.  
“I do not believe that enough time has passed for that tea to be sufficiently cooled” Naoto tried to warn Kanji however she knew it would already be in vain. The following expression of fear, regret and pain on Kanjis face while worrying was quite humorous to Naoto and did indeed prove her point.

After putting his tea down at a very slow speed Kanji took a minute to compose himself before opening his mouth again, already seeing the smug look on his friend’s face. “So how are things going at the station now that the murder investigation Is wrapped up?”.

While noting the quick deflection away from his blunder Naoto did not mind the change in conversation as they both knew how much police work meant to her. “Unsurprisingly quiet when compared to a multi murder yearlong investigation, although that is not to say that crime has stopped completely as you probably have heard.”

“Ah shit yeah I heard about the robberies around town, any leads yet?” Kanji had remembered seeing info on it in the local paper but got most news through his mother, the benefit of having one of the few shops in town meant you got frontline access to all the local gossip.

“As of yet no, I have some preliminary ideas but nowhere near concrete yet” Naoto looked down finally starting her tea with a worried look on her face.

Kanji slid over slightly closer to Naoto and nudged her reassuringly with his arm “Hey you’ll get the bastard don’t worry, I mean if it weren’t for you we never would have got Adachi” he gave her a warm smile back just in case the patented kanji nudge wasn’t enough.

The compliments while not new from Kanji cause her to smile every time and while it usually ends with her acknowledging that the entire team was necessary and not just her, however a simple “Thank you Kanji” and a nudge back was sufficient enough for Naoto this time.

After finishing up their tea, with no further burning incidents, the Naoto bid Kanji farewell with a brief hug and hurried home to escape the rain with her umbrella only helping so much in this storm like weather.

~

Shaking off the rain that caught on the side of her jacket Naoto took out her keys and entered the apartment hanging up the umbrella and said jacket on the nearby hooks. The apartment was given to her by the Inaba police department to accommodate her during the investigation however due to her overwhelming help and success in the investigation, as well as the fact she was staying on full time, the force was more than happy to let her keep the place for as long as she was here to stay.

While small as can be expected from a 1-bedroom apartment it was cosy in the best possible way, blankets were only ever a few steps away whenever it got cold and tea was always on standby. Despite the stereotypical belief that detectives all have to have a constant influx of coffee Naoto was never really a fan of it, the taste was less than pleasant to say the least and the burst of energy, while useful during late night work, often led to a lack of concentration or the shakes far too quickly to be worth the effort.

After boiling water and making herself a warm cup of much needed green tea Naoto went into the sitting area where she got out all the notes on the latest case and sprawled them across the table before organising them into chronological order along with helpfulness in the case so far. The robberies in the local areas that Kanji had mentioned earlier was indeed her current main investigation and so far very little evidence had been left behind, not due to an abundance of skill on the thief’s part as they had left a trail of broken items and locks in their wake yet still no credible DNA evidence or clues to lead her so far. So far it had been a mix of homes and stores that were broken into and while no one had been hurt almost all of the locations hit had jewelry and items of certain material value stolen so it could be ruled out that this was for personal gain as so far there was no pattern and no clear motive other than monetary gain, which was enough these days she supposed.

The lack of a pattern and evidence alongside were enough to cause Naoto anger but coming straight off the murder investigation this should have been a cake walk in comparison, however she did have to acknowledge the fact that now there was no help from Personas or a set of rules to help her along and now only had the normal police procedure to help her, but this if anything drove her more to solve it. And besides, it would have got quite boring around here if she didn’t have a challenge to keep her busy.

~

The next time she looked up at the clock it had just passed midnight and despite 3 hours of pouring through the files she had little to show for it. The best she could gather was that the culprit would not hit another location immediately after the last one, however it would only ever be 5 days’ break before another target was hit. The suspect had to be local as they knew when and where to get in and out as fast as possible, yet still showed a remarkable lack of caution as draws and cabinets were left flung open and in some cases destroyed despite the considerable noise these actions would have caused suggesting a sense of carelessness which only confused Naoto more. The culprit was willing to put in the time and effort to plan when and where they would hit perfectly but then would risk getting caught by wrecking the place in the middle of the night? The approach seemed far too paradoxical to be believed but so far it’s all she had.

Being frustrated at the dead ends she kept finding along with the time getting on Naoto began to tidy the work up as best she could in the quite dazed state. Once she had exited her zone of work it seems as if the 4 hours of constant work had caught up with her and took the remaining energy she had out of her; that was until her phone went off on the wall near the door waking her up with shock and moreover confusion at a call and such a late hour.

Picking up the phone she realised almost immediately it was the stations operator assigned with passing off messages to detectives in and out of the Inaba region. She started to grab her boots and coat when she heard the details come through of another location hit by this mystery thief. This wasn’t the first time she had been called on late at night for this case but it was only the first 2 she visited this late with Dojima when he was in town and in charge of the investigation, often the home or shop owners did not realise it had happened till the next day due to being out of town or not staying at the store so it peaked her interest that one had been caught so close to its initial break in time.

She froze upon hearing the address, for the first time in months she was speechless. Thoughts and ideas racing through her mind yet none would be spoken as she grasped at her phone with a tightening grip. “Please repeat the...the address.” Naoto managed to say with hesitation in every word. It was repeated once more before the door to her apartment was flung open and she rushed down the stairs of her small complex to head to the scene. It was only 10 minutes away and she knew the route like the back of her hand, she had walked it hours ago on her way home and almost every day this summer. The location scared her more than she thought possible, but the extra detail that there was an occupant injured on scene made her heart stop for what felt like an eternity. The most recent break in was at the local textile shop ran by Kanji and his mother and while the ambiguity of who was hurt initially scared Naoto the realisation that Kanji’s mother was out of town terrified her even more.


End file.
